There are information management apparatuses for managing content sites accessible through a network to search for content information, such as moving images or electronic dictionary. These apparatuses include an apparatus in which annotation information added to particular content by a plurality of users is shared between the users.
To enable annotation information for content to be shared between users on a content site, the information management apparatus must store, in a database, the content and the annotation information in association with each other.
However, since the content items are made to correspond to the respective annotation information items, there is a case where a plurality of content items (for example, the same content items of different versions or those published by different publishers) associated with each other exist in the database. In this case, annotation information may not be able to be shared between associated content items. Furthermore, when users independently hold document data out of copyright in different formats or forms in their respective local environments, it is difficult to share annotation information because the databases and file systems are scattered.
Accordingly, in the conventional information management apparatuses, the content information users want to know, and annotation information associated therewith, cannot appropriately be searched for.